Unity in Christ: The True Life of the Church

The Apostle makes that perfectly clear in one Corinthians 12 and in other places, our Lord's Prayer was that there might be one. Very well, there we needn't stay with this. The thing is so perfectly obvious, but I say it should be extremely obvious to all of us who have ever considered this doctrine of the church in terms of this analogy of the body. [00:06:21]

Unity if this illustration of Pauls is right is never a matter of addition, adding this to that and that to another. That's already wrong. We've approached it the wrong way around, and all our thinking must inevitably lead to disaster. Or let me put that in a different form. According to this analogy, we must never think of unity merely in terms of the removal of divisions. [00:08:48]

Unity must never be the first thing. Unity is not something in and of itself. The unity of the church is always the result of something else. So you don't start with unity. You start with the nature of the church and then see that the unity is inevitable. You don't put up Unity as an end in and of itself. [00:10:11]

The First Essential is this is true belief in him. He is reminded us of it in verses four, five, and six: one body, one Spirit, even as you called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, One Faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. [00:12:30]

The church today puts unity in chapter one. It starts with it as if it's everything, and men are preaching unity and not preaching Christ, preaching the church and not preaching salvation. All the talk is about unity, and men and women are not saved, and the church is not being built up. That's because they don't realize that Unity comes out of something else. [00:13:04]

The life of the church is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that without him there is no life in the church, and the church is dead. You notice how he made that perfectly plain himself in that great statement which we read out of John's gospel chapter 15. The Life is In The Vine, and it goes into the branches. [00:19:52]

The church has confused between activity and life, and there's all the difference in the world between activity and life. It's the difference between what a machine does and what a man does. It's the difference between a machine and a plant or a flower. That's the difference. [00:20:43]

The doctrine of the remnant God using individuals. We've forgotten that and read the history of the church since the end of the New Testament Canon, and what again do you find? Well, you see, you find exactly the same thing. Athanasius cont mundum, that one man standing against the whole world for Vital Doctrine, and he prevailed. [00:26:35]

The call of the New Testament to us primarily is not to do anything but to be something. One thing that is necessary is that you and I should be usable. It is you and I who are hindrances to his working. We are not usable as we ought to be. [00:38:32]

They first of all had an intense struggle. What was the struggle? Well, the struggle was with themselves and with their own abilities and powers, and the point came when they were crushed to their knees and realized their importance, then submitted themselves utterly and absolutely to him and were filled with the power of His Holy Spirit. [00:39:36]

Pray for Revival in this country so that we shall bring an end to the scandal of the present time, which is this: that friends coming here from the colonies would always thought of this country as a Christian country are appalled when they come to London and are almost tempted to give up the Christian faith believing that it isn't true. [00:41:29]

Pray that the whole church may vitally be connected with him, the head, that his life and his power may come into us and upon us and may work through us, and the church may be revived, and the Sinners outside may be converted. He is the head. He says I am the vine, you are the branches. [00:42:11]